The detection of gravitational waves has been one of the most exciting scientific developments of the XXIst century. These detections are theory-driven, they rely on the existence of waveform libraries, which have been constructed for binary black holes and neutron stars. Gr@v members have collaborated on the construction of the first waveform catalogue for exotic compact objects, an effort led by former Gr@v member Nicolas Sanchis Gual (now at the U. Valencia).
The black hole merger in scalar-Gauss-Bonnet gravity can lead to dynamical descalarization this is a spontaneous release of the scalar
hair of the newly formed black hole. Depending on the exact form of the Gauss-Bonnet coupling function, the stable scalarized solutions
Non-linear extensions of Proca theory are pathological at large field amplitudes. I will explain why. I will also discuss a separate criterion for breakdown proposed in the literature, and why it does not correspond to a real physical problem
The theory of General Relativity has successfully passed a large number of observational tests. The theory has been extensively tested in the weak-field regime with experiments in the Solar System and observations of binary pulsars.
In the paper "The fate of the light-ring instability" Gr@v members P. Cunha, C. Herdeiro and E. Radu, together with former member, currently at the U. Valencia, N. Sanchis-Gual, have unveiled the mystery of the fate of a large class of horizonless ultracompact objects, that could be potential black hole foils.
The project "Gravitational waves, black holes, and fundamental physics" led by M. Zilhão (co-PI C.Herdeiro), fully based at Aveiro U., was one of the six Scientific Research and Technological Development Projects selected for funding in the 2022 FCT Call for R&D projects in the Physics panel. All results can be seen here.
As the academic year 2021/22 draws to a close our group is welcoming the visits of Yasha Shnir (Oldenburg, Germany), Jorge Castelo (Santigo de Compostela, Spain) and Sergio Gimeno Soler (IST-Lisbon and Valencia, Spain).
Our group coordinated the "Numerical Relativity and High Energy Physics" IRSES network (2012-2015). Here is a list of the global network meetings organized:
